Tech —

China Unicom officially says “ni hao” to iPhone 3GS

Apple and China Unicom have finally succeeded in reaching an agreement to bring the iPhone to China. Details are scarce at this point, but China Unicom officials revealed during a press conference on its recent financial results that it has made a three-year deal to sell the iPhone, and it should go on sale later this year. "This will provide users with brand new communication and information experience," according to a statement released by China Unicom.

The deal is the result of a long and winding process. Apple originally hoped to work out a deal with China Mobile, the country's largest carrier. However, China Mobile balked at Apple's original revenue sharing model. When Apple launched the iPhone 3G and moved to a more common subsidized model, negotiations began again with China Mobile, but supposedly broke down over operation and control of the App Store.

Meanwhile, Apple began negotiations with China Unicom, the country's second largest carrier, sometime early this year. It's believed that being second made China Unicom more willing to court Apple, and its recently built WCDMA 3G network was a perfect fit for the iPhone. (Most carriers in China use a homegrown, Chinese-specific 3G network). Apple apparently made a few concessions, including disabling the WiFi feature—which is prohibited on mobile phones by Chinese law—and adding what appears to be a China Unicom startup screen. Most recently, Apple executives traveled to China to hammer out the final details with China Unicom—today's announcement suggests those negotiations went well for both companies.

As of 9pm Beijing local time, Apple's Chinese website is now taking customer information to be notified when details of the iPhone's arrival are known (as pointed out by iPhone in China). China Unicom expects that to happen sometime in the fourth quarter of this year.

Entering the Chinese market is a major coup for Apple, as the country's roughly 700 million mobile subscribers represent the largest potential market for the iPhone in the world. If Apple is able to reach just two percent of those customers (that's Apple's current share of global mobile market), that represents 14 million more iPhone sales—a 56 percent increase over the roughly 25 million Apple has sold so far, over two years and in 80 countries.

You mean non-Chinese speakers never heard of 歡迎? Cause I hear that practically every day... 歡迎觀臨。

Anyway, although I'm in Beijing, the watered-down features is a major turnoff. I'd rather just go by a pirated, full-featured one (you can even get them at the Apple Store here in Sanlitun, it's just not on display) and then get a China Unicom account to hopefully still take advantage of things like visual voicemail.

Oh, and China Mobile can screw itself (am I allowed to use more colorful langauge?)

Remember people saying that WiFi ban was for keeping China people in control despite any logic?

According to AFP news (Google translation) :"Analysts said the government opposes that phones are equipped with WiFi, lest the public telecom companies lose money because of the number of places available for Wi-Fi in the country"

How is this a perfect fit? The iPhone uses the GSM family protocols EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. Presumably a WCDMA iPhone would require different hardware. Did Apple develop an iPhone with a different antenna for WCDMA? That would be even bigger news than getting into China, because it would make the idea of a Verizon iPhone in the US so plausible

How is this a perfect fit? The iPhone uses the GSM family protocols EDGE, UMTS, and HSDPA. Presumably a WCDMA iPhone would require different hardware. Did Apple develop an iPhone with a different antenna for WCDMA? That would be even bigger news than getting into China, because it would make the idea of a Verizon iPhone in the US so plausible

Also, for the record, China Mobile uses TD-SCDMA for 3G, China Unicom uses WCDMA (UMTS), and China Telecom uses EVDO. So only a single carrier uses the home grown 3G standard...it just happens to be the single largest carrier in the world by subscribers.

China Mobile is so massive, many people here don't know anything else exists.

Go try to buy a phone card to add minutes (充值卡) and 80% of the time people will just assume China Mobile and give you that. The other 20% of the time they'll specifically ask you if you want China Mobile.

Originally posted by HorusUltd:Remember people saying that WiFi ban was for keeping China people in control despite any logic?

According to AFP news (Google translation) :"Analysts said the government opposes that phones are equipped with WiFi, lest the public telecom companies lose money because of the number of places available for Wi-Fi in the country"

Less worrying like that, huh?

Also, the Chinese government wants Wifi devices in China to support their homegrown WAPI standard(as opposed to WPA). I'm not sure if the lack of WiFi on China's iphone is due to Apple's reluctance to add WAPI support, or not though.

I think this is quite funny to read rumours about the iTablet being spotted in China: "The prototypes were in a factory in Shenzhen, China " and now gloriously Apple can sell iPhones to China. It's all made in there on the first place!!!

Originally posted by Rickzkm:I think this is quite funny to read rumours about the iTablet being spotted in China: "The prototypes were in a factory in Shenzhen, China " and now gloriously Apple can sell iPhones to China. It's all made in there on the first place!!!

Yes, but without a carrier and an agreement they might as well be the unlocked phones smuggled in from HK... oh wait, they are unlocked phones smuggled in from HK.

I don't know what the current sales projections for iPhones are but I think I can safely predict that 50m units need to be added because this morning my mom told me she wants an iPhone.

My mom was previously last on my list of people to want an iPhone so that's pretty significant. It's a demographic that was previously using Nokia dumbphones. My mom is 64 years old and can't use a computer without help, and never was a tech person, or into computers, or phones. Now she wants an iPhone! It's crazy.